Obituary: Wynne Bullen - pioneering women’s rights advocate

Wynne Bullen, pictured on her 105th birthday, is remembered as being a passionate advocate for women's rights.

New Zealand has lost a long-time battler for women’s rights with the death, on Friday, October 11, of Levin resident Wynne Bullen just weeks short of her 106th birthday.

In the 1960s she became the first woman elected to the Upper Hutt Borough Council, topping the poll, but the all-male council denied her the honour of deputy-mayor. It was the catalyst for a lifetime of fighting for women which was recognised in some small way with the presentation of a Kate Sheppard Camellia brooch.

Wynne Malkin was born in Brighton, England, in December 1918, soon after the end of World War I. Her father, Edwin Malkin, served in France with the Royal Sussex Regiment and was wounded and gassed several times. Her mother, Florence, was a nurse.

Wynne had three sisters and two brothers and the whole family emigrated to New Zealand in 1925, in search of a better life. They settled in Waipukurau in Central Hawke’s Bay, where Wynne completed her schooling and then took up shop work.

In 1941, at the age of 22, she met and married Christopher John Bullen, a fitter and turner at the Gear Meat Company in Petone, and they set up house in Upper Hutt.

The couple had two children, Chris and Jim, and once the boys were old enough Wynne went back to work as a kindergarten teacher. She also showed the first signs of political activity, becoming electorate secretary to Industries and Commerce Minister Phil Holloway in the Nash Labour Government.

However, her interests gravitated more to local politics and in the 1960s she stood for the Upper Hutt Council, where, despite topping the poll, it was made clear that she would not be deputy mayor. She promised herself that the next woman to be in the same position would not suffer the same put-down and sure enough, in a later election when Doris Nicholson topped the poll, the deputy mayoral post was almost automatically hers.

When Wynne’s husband Chris retired, the couple moved to Levin and Wynne was a regular attendee at local and national political meetings, armed with questions for the candidates. Chris passed away at the age of 92, and soon after Wynne bought a unit in Reevedon Retirement Village in Levin. She sold it when she was 97 and moved in to the rest home.

Wynne celebrated her 100th birthday on December 8, 2018, with 120 friends and family on hand for the occasion. On her 105th birthday she was interviewed live on breakfast television.

When asked for the key to her longevity she replied: “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I have no secret. I just lived each day and got on with it.”

Getting on with it was something she did right up to the end, suggesting ways of keeping other rest home residents active and entertained, including teaching the “old people” how to play indoor bowls and helping to run trivial pursuits. Two days before her death she was talking to the rest home’s recreation staff about another new activity.

When she turned 100 she tried to carry out a banking transaction but it was declined and her account was blocked. When bank staff queried it the computer came back with the message that Wynne Bullen was a minor and unable to operate a bank account. The computer only recognised the last two digits of a customer’s age and in 2018 it showed her as under the age of 1.

Wynne was most amused.